provided by Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center
Working with children who have experienced child abuse requires a set of skills that at times, takes time, dedication, and commitment to gain. Since Heart to Heart Child Advocacy Center (H2HCAC) opened in 2000, staff have always strived to do their best, and part of doing that is through continuous education and training. New staff often feel that training logs will reflect the hundreds of hours they have taken over the year, only to find it was only 20 or 30 hours but what they were presented with was so valuable, that the impact was so great.
At H2HCAC, we understand the importance of ensuring that the skills and tools we are using are best practices because in many cases, we are the bridge to hope that a child can start that healing process. H2HCAC serves children ages 3-18 as well as vulnerable adults who have experienced abuse. Within our agency, we provide advocacy and forensic interviews to children and their non-offending family members. We also have the privilege of partnering with community agencies who are also fighting child abuse, by coordinating a monthly meeting with them. Lastly, we provide education, resources and information to community members in a variety of ways.
We often hear that child abuse does not occur in “OUR” community. Serving in a tri-county area, our agency knows that just is not true. Child abuse can be upsetting to talk about but when we do not talk about it, we are not addressing it. Our numbers of cases served in the last 5 years are as follows: 2019-151, 2020-135, 2021-165, 2022-173,2023-229. We often get asked, “why”? I wish I knew the answer but what I can confidently say is that child abuse does occur. There is no rhyme or reason or stand-alone risk factors. What our agency hopes to accomplish through our work is to address the abuse that is occurring and empower those who come to our agency for any of the services we offer, so they may have the tools to stop abuse from occurring.
This leads to one of our favorite smaller fundraisers that we do. Food has played such a significant part in our CAC. Our staff enjoy inviting people to our space and that often is done with food. When kids come in for an advocacy or forensic interview, we always make sure to have snacks because snacks help us meet a basic need of a child and aids to comfort them in a time that can be scary and stressful. We try to at least once a quarter provide a lunch for our community partners that hopefully let them know we appreciate their hard work. We also enjoy having open houses where we can share desserts and food and give tours of our spaces.
On August 26th, we invite you to come to our space for our taco and bierock sale to help. Proceeds will aid us in attending the Dallas Crimes Against Children Conference, an excellent training to gain new skills and knowledge. We are doing pre-orders as well as serving a hot lunch but only at our Newton location. Pre-orders are due by August 23rd. Pick-up will be on August 26th between 10 am and 3 pm for cold orders. Our pre-ordered hot lunch will be served from 11am-1:30pm at 702 N Main, Newton, KS. We will have a space for you to enjoy on site or feel free to do take out. Delivery is also available if you need it in all 3 counties. Menu items include pre-order items that can be picked up between 10am-3pm: bierocks- 1/2 dozen- $30 and unfried tacos- 1 dozen- $36. Our hot lunch will be served from 11 to 1:30 pm: bierock and bag of chips will be $5 and fresh fried flour taco with toppings and homemade salsa will be $3/each. Bierocks will have a hamburger and cabbage filling and the flour-fried tacos will have a filling of cooked hamburger, peas, and potatoes.
We encouraged you to check our Facebook page for more information and a link to order. Questions can be sent to director@hearttoheartcac.com or call our office at 316-804-4603.
